BookDrive

Whenever I visited the local copy shop while at University the do-it-yourself photocopy machines were always occupied by groups of engineering students, mass-reproducing their various text books. While I was impressed by their dedication at saving a few dollars, I don’t think I could ever spend hours at a machine monotonously turning pages.

This process though has now become a whole lot easier with the Atiz Book Drive scanner. Feeding you the data via USB 2.0, the device will scan a 500 page book in an hour, automatically turning the pages for you. For those worried about their texts the scanner uses a technology called SoftGlide that supposedly leaves books well preserved and unaffected during the scanning process. In addition to the OCR duties it performs, the BookDrive will also auto-crop and clean up any images as it makes its way through the book.

The Atiz BookDrive will set you back $50,000 so it’s probably just cheaper to buy your assigned textbooks.

“Most of this project was constructed with the help of an eraser and Legos. It uses the eraser to act as a grip for the page turner and an upside-down Epson scanner that is hooked up to an average laptop.”

OhGizmo! is a frequently updated blog that focuses on covering items that will appeal to a very specific and often very passionate audience: the geek. Aside from the fare of innovative consumer electronic products, the reader can expect to find news about geek culture, absurd inventions, awe inspiring technology, and an ever growing assortment of articles that we like to think fit within our view of what we’re calling the Geek Lifestyle.